Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Alexander’s Hope’s Board of Directors is comprised of a wide range of distinguished individuals who have all been touched and inspired by both organ donation and Alexander’s story. All of whom are dedicated to Alexander’s Hope’s mission to spread awareness of organ donation and screen young hearts to test for undiagnosed heart conditions.

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About Us

Alexander’s Hope is a nonprofit organization aimed to spread awareness of organ donation, as well as, alleviate misconceptions relate to organ donation. 95 percent of Americans claim they support organ donation, yet only 54 percent of Americans are currently organ donors- a statistic that Alexander’s Hope aims to shrink drastically. Additionally, we at Alexander’s Hope are advocates for updating Washington State’s driver’s education curriculum in order to better include organ donation into the curriculum, with hopes to increase first time driver’s license recipients’ opt-in organ donation rates. Furthermore, Alexander’s Hope works alongside The Nick of Time Foundation, to provide lifesaving cardiac tests (Electrocardiograms, and in some cases, Echocardiograms) to high school students while teaching them CPR and how to operate an AED.

Get to Know Us

Alexander’s Hope is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible.

Bella Chaffey

President and Founder

Bella has had much experience working and volunteering for a plethora of different nonprofits. She had extensive nonprofit internships throughout college, plenty of volunteer experience with many nonprofits all around the world throughout her life, and has known from a young age that nonprofit work is where her heart lies. When her younger brother, Alexander, had emergency open heart surgery and received a donor heart in the summer of 2017 she found a new cause that she realized had to be addressed more in society and that she cared deeply about, organ donation awareness and screening young hearts to try and prevent others from going through what her brother, Alexander did. Through that realization, her past nonprofit experiences, and with help from family and friends she decided to form Alexander’s Hope.

When Bella is not organizing fundraisers and spreading awareness for Alexander’s Hope, she is most likely doing work for her other job as a real estate broker at Windermere’s Chaffey Real Estate Team where she partners with her father, Bob Chaffey.

Bob Chaffey

Vice President

Bob has been building and selling homes for nearly 30 years, as a homebuilder with Chaffey Homes and more recently, a Managing Broker with Windermere Real Estate. Over the years, Chaffey Homes has won many awards, including The National Association of Home Builders Green Home of the Year, multiple MAME awards and Best of Show at luxury home events. Bob has a huge heart for children and is on the Board of Trustees for Olive Crest, a non-profit dedicated to preventing child abuse. Bob is or has been a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties as well as Kitsap, Pierce and Skagit counties, National Association of Home Builders, Seattle King County Association of Realtors, and National Association of Realtors and many more.

Bob is the proud father of three children, Isabella, Alexander, a 2017 recipient of a donor heart and Sophia Chaffey. Bob is an avid golfer and enjoys hiking, traveling and most everything outside, he has been married to Jennifer Chaffey since 1995.

Jen Chaffey

Treasurer

Jen has been busy the past 23 years raising three kids as a stay at home mom. She has always said this is by far the hardest and most important job she will ever have. Most of her work prior to having children was in the medical field, which has always been her passion. As her kids have grown older she has had more flexibility which has allowed her to work part time over the last five years as an in-home caregiver for elderly or ill clients. Currently, Jen has a new passion, which is to spread awareness of the importance of organ donations after her son received a lifesaving heart transplant in the summer of 2017.

Lisa Carlson

Secretary

Lisa has worked in public affairs and fundraising in the Pacific

Northwest for over 20 years. Her expertise includes the areas of

event planning and execution, project management and logistics. She began her career serving the state of Washington while working in Washington, DC and went on to work as an advocate for small businesses in Olympia, WA.

In 1996, Lisa founded a fundraising and event management consulting firm to serve clients in the nonprofit, political and corporate sectors. Her recent work focuses on delivering exceptional results for partners engaged in the arts, leadership development and software industries.

While working with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the past 13 years, Lisa has directed over $8.5 million in funds raised for cancer research. This work includes managing more than 1400 climber/fundraisers as they aspire to ascend mountain peaks across the Pacific Northwest and on four continents.

Lisa is a lifelong Washingtonian and graduated from Washington

State University. She spends her free time reading, hiking,

snowboarding and volunteering her time with organizations focused on children, cancer research and the outdoors. An adventurer at heart, she’s climbed mountains all over the world for charity, completed marathons and loves exploring beautiful terrain.

Liz Strathy-Merrill

Board

Liz is the Vice President of Investor Services for the Sound Equity Debt Fund and Owner of Sweat Equity Gym (Seattle and San Diego) and is a personal Health/Balance Coach. She attended the University of Washington on athletic scholarship (swimming). Giving back to the community has always been hugely important to Liz. She has raised money to build 8 fresh water wells in Africa as well as a pre-school and hosted fundraisers for the Family Seal Foundation and served on the board of Childhaven for 2 terms. Liz has continued her love for sport her entire life. She has completed over 10 marathons and ultra-marathons as well as many long-distance bike races. Her passion is to combine the lessons and habits taught through sport and business to help women of all socioeconomic and physical backgrounds to truly become their very best selves. To optimize their potential and to use these gifts to change the world.

Judy Petrie

Board

Judy was born in Hong Kong and moved to the States at a young age. She attended Western Washington University. Post college, Judy was busy raising three amazing kids, Steven, Michael, and Christina. Judy is thrilled to work as a board member for Alexander’s Hope and believes it is crucially important to help others whenever possible through giving back to the world in a positive way, specifically through the ultimate gift, the gift of life. Judy not only encourages others to become organ donors, but is herself a live donor, she donated one of her kidneys a few years ago, making Alexander’s Hope that much closer to her heart.

Kathy Binder

Board

Kathy Binder serves as the board chairperson of a Kent-based high-tech manufacturing company while dedicating herself to providing underserved children the best education possible. Kathy served on the board of directors of the League of Education Voters Foundation and Stand for Children. She is a founding board member of the Washington State Charter Schools Association and served as a founding board member of one of the first local charter schools to open in the state of Washington. Kathy serves as an advisory board member for the Seattle Urban Academy, a high school for some of the highest risk children in the greater Seattle area. All of these nonprofit organizations organize their work around the principle that underserved and at-risk students deserve an equal opportunity for success in education.

Additionally to Kathy’s extensive work on nonprofit boards, she is the mother of two children and a new grandmother of a grandson and owns an aerospace company with her husband.

Alexander Chaffey

Board

Alexander is currently exploring areas of study that impassionate him. He loves writing, music, the study of animals (especially marine life), and video games. He is able to continue pursuing these passions due to the lifesaving heart transplant he received in September of 2017. An unexpected emergency following a family vacation led to him being hospitalized in August of 2017, and he was put on an artificial heart. Due to the generosity of a donor, he was able to receive a transplant remarkably quickly and that saved his life. He has made a full recovery!

Sophia Chaffey

Board

Sophia Chaffey is a student at the University of Washington. Along with studying for her undergraduate, she is part of the UW Women’s National Championship Rowing Team. When not rowing, Sophia works as a lifeguard and enjoys spending time outside hiking, swimming, and biking. Alexander’s Hope has a special place in her heart, since she witnessed Alexander’s journey firsthand. Her competitive drive and winner’s mentality makes her a strong addition to the Alexander’s Hope Board of Directors.

Margo Engberg

Board

Margo Engberg is the mother of four adopted children and is also helping raise a few of her nieces and nephews. She is the CEO and Founder of PinkaBella Cupcakes, a story that was inspired by her adopted children, who had never had a birthday party. Though running her company of five stores, and a franchise keeps her busy, her priority is her family and serving her community. Margo has served on many charity auctions as a chair member, as well as working for outreach organizations for children at risk, doing anything from serving meals to mentoring. More than anything, Margo is passionate about people, especially those in need.

Doug Engberg

Board

Doug Engberg is the father of four adopted children. He has served on numerous boards over the years, including New Horizons, Prodigals International, Breakthrough Partners, as well as involvement in Rotary. His passion is to help nonprofits flourish and grow in their mission.